38.9 seconds that changed Massa's life forever

For 38.9 seconds, Felipe Massa, his family and his Ferrari team celebrated his crowning success as the 2008 world champion.

Massa had just crossed the finish line at the Brazilian Grand Prix in first place, winning his home race and scoring just the number of points he needed to win the title. His closest competitor, Lewis Hamilton, was still sliding around a wet track in sixth place and thus did not have enough points to secure the title.

Then, suddenly, the celebration in the Ferrari garage fizzled. In the last corner of the track, Hamilton, in his McLaren Mercedes, passed the Toyota of Timo Glock and was now in fifth position.

The British driver crossed the finish line in that position and in a flash the celebration exploded in the McLaren garage as Hamilton had snatched the title ahead of Massa by a single point.

It was at once the highest and the lowest point in Massa’s career as a Formula One driver. For 38 seconds, he felt like the champion, only to be deflated. It was a defining, typical moment for the amiable Brazilian who had entered the series as a great hope in 2002, but had never quite convinced as world champion material until that season, when he won six races and left his team-mate, the reigning champion Kimi Raikkonen, looking tired and washed up.

Massa had begun to look like elite auto racing’s equivalent to cycling’s perennial also-ran, Raymond Poulidor, who never won the Tour de France despite finishing in second place three times and in third place five times. On the other hand, although Massa had finished third in the series in 2006 as Michael Schumacher’s team-mate, he had not come any closer to the title since.

In fact, the 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix did not end up being the low point in Massa’s career. During qualifying at the Hungarian Grand Prix the next season, he was struck in the head by a flying suspension spring that had fallen off another car. The spring smashed through his helmet and just missed his eye. He was lucky to have survived, and lucky to not have lost his eyesight.

He had a titanium plate put in his skull, and missed the rest of that season, but he returned in 2010 and finished that year and the next in sixth position, failing to score a podium finish. Massa, now 31, has never raced quite the same since, although he denies that the accident affected his racing.

This season at Ferrari, he has been out-performed by his team-mate, Fernando Alonso, who leads the series by 37 points ahead of his nearest rival and is 132 points ahead of Massa, who is 10th. There has been speculation that Massa will not race for the team next year.

Still, it is emblematic of his career that at the Italian Grand Prix two weeks ago, Massa scored the third-fastest time in qualifying, while Alonso started a distant 10th after a problem with the car. It was also typical that Massa finished the race fourth, while Alonso finished third.

Much of Massa’s career has had to do with luck, and there are many who say that had it not been for a cheating scandal involving Alonso’s Renault team at the Singapore Grand Prix, Massa would have been champion in 2008.

At that race, Massa scored pole position and led the race for 14 laps until an accident in which he was not involved disrupted the race. Alonso’s team-mate Nelson Piquet Jr crashed at that point, and Alonso benefited from the timing to overtake his rivals and win the race. Until that point, Massa had had a chance to win the race.

But after the chaos of the accident and a mistake during the forced pit stop by an unprepared Ferrari team, Massa finished the race 13th and scored no points. Hamilton, meanwhile, finished third, and moved 7 points ahead of Massa into the lead in the series. Those valuable points would have helped Massa win the title at the end of the season.

Massa’s unassuming, friendly and reticent demeanor has also affected how he has been perceived as a driver throughout his career.

After a rather successful start to his career, he joined Ferrari in 2006.

But in the end, his chance came -- and appears to have gone -- in that season of 2008, when he lived his dream as world champion for 38.9 seconds.